Friday, June 7, 2013

Indonesia's beautiful gesture


If Indian embassy did any thing of the sort,India will lose half of seculars to heart attack.Remember when blind school children were singing praises to Swaraswathi , with human resource minister Murali Manohar Joshi presiding in Delhi, all non BJP parties staged a walk out.  One of them who walked out was named Bharathi who was education minister of Andhra Pradesh.
 
Shameful indeed such a tribe who cannot honor their own ancestral cultural heritage.
US is genuinely secular in contrast to pseudo secular New Delhi. Yet no Congressman( representative in US Congress, not of SoniaG's) has ever walked out when prayers were recited in the House by Hindu priest. In contrast Vandematarm that played significant role in freedom struggle was barred from singing in Indian Parliament for nearly 50 years until BJP got into parliament with strength of 100 members.
 
As such,, in contrast, the Indonesian gesture of having Saraswathi statue at their embassy in Washington DC is most welcome news.
 
India's culture and civilization spread far and wide influencing Indian Ocean community as well as China and beyond. For that to happen the nationals of those areas flocked to universities like Taxsila and Nalanda. Saraswathi temple was located in N.Kashmir near the Taxsila. By itself the temple was store house of such great knowledge even Adi Sankara and Sri Ramanuja made a pilgrimage to get references and endorsements for their Advaitha and Visishtaadviata philosophies.

So it is good to note even if 'secular socialist' India forgot such heritage,Indonesia remembers. We should be grateful to Indonesia for this beautiful gesture.
 
PS: Pakistan also shares same heritage as Indonesia and both are largely Moslem nations. But there is difference. While Indonesia honors Goddess Saraswathi, Pakistan uses relic of Saraswathi temple in N Kashmir for shooting practice by their troops. Also it is altogether heart rending story as to how the sacred image of Saraswathi there worshiped in past by such greats as noted above,got thrown into river,through deception of Maharaja of Kashmir who wanted to save the sacred image on eve of partition.

Any way May Goddess Saraswathi bless people and authorities of Indonesia. And God bless US 

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